[barleyguy]

Quote:

Quote:

I don't know about that.I heard they licensed Coconut Audio technology that opens a wormhole into another dimension.

 
Maybe they used an entire boatload of Lessloss Blackbodys, IsoNatu Pillars of Darkness, and VPI magic bricks. Or they're using an ultra tweeter, available from the people who brought you brilliant pebbles and the clever little clock. But the ultra tweeter is apparently 1 GHz plus.

So it's a radio transmitter?

 

[Uncle Erik]

What gets me is the inefficiency of spending money on this sort of stuff. I suppose there's an argument about the profits to the manufacturer being spent, but that ties up the money with workers producing something unnecessary and with very little value. Seriously. On the secondhand market, you'll have to find someone with an extraordinary amount of money, or the stuff is just worth scrap value. Scrap would probably be a couple thousand, at best.

I'm not a huge fan of just giving money away. Without getting into politics, handing out cash isn't effective. However, you can do things with it like build low-cost housing. That provides a slim return, but you also create something with intrinsic value. People can live there. You could also use the money and start a factory. Jobs are useful and have a way of benefitting the worker's family directly. Other social uses might be building a park or a concert hall, an inexpensive private school, a library, or much else.

One of the things that bothers me is that people and institutions are larding away the wealth. Not to say they don't deserve it, etc., but it goes into intangible assets that only benefit the owner. Even a lot of the tangible stuff, like these $1M stereos only benefit the owner. This is a very inefficient use of money with low social benefit.

If I had eight or nine figures of disposable income, I'd put it to use. I'd like to have some factories, build a bunch of housing, start businesses, fund new businesses, build some new buildings at schools I attended, and much else. Instead of a million dollar stereo, I think I could put some people to work and get some return. That would have a lot more social utility. I'd still have a nice stereo, but people with jobs and an income stream is better for everyone.

So you can argue back and forth about how much is "too much," but you really have to look at the efficiency of money use. It wasn't always this way, either. If you look at the captains of industry from the Gilded Age - which wasn't terribly different from the Gilded Bubbles we just went through - they didn't stash their money away in offshore accounts. These guys built universities, schools, libraries, civic centers, parks, railroads, buildings, and much else. They still had their fortunes and got a return on what they used their money for.

 

[haloxt]

The people who would spend a million on a speaker setup probably have a lot more money they could use for making money. There's probably only one or two nutcases on the planet who would spend their whole lives working for the money to purchase one of these audio systems.

 

[Guidostrunk]

Fabio might be the first nutcase that comes to mind to spend a million on a system.
Quote:

The people who would spend a million on a speaker setup probably have a lot more money they could use for making money. There's probably only one or two nutcases on the planet who would spend their whole lives working for the money to purchase one of these audio systems.

 

[Frank I]

Quote:

I just added up my spending and luckily it's only at $9,995.  So, no doubt here...LOL
 
Just once, I would like to hear one of these systems to dispel all my doubts.

you would say what the hell. I have heard systems up to 250K in Overture in Delaware and really for the 10 pervent difference over a modest system what a wase. The best system I heard was a Cat SL1 with two Cat monoblock triodes driving Genesis !! speakers and a Theta 10K processor with the transpror. All Discovery cable total cost about 90K and it was only 10 percent better than the 30K I had in my house at that time. Big profit in those statement rigs.

 

[revolink24]

Quote:

Quote:

Quote:

I don't know about that.I heard they licensed Coconut Audio technology that opens a wormhole into another dimension.

 
Maybe they used an entire boatload of Lessloss Blackbodys, IsoNatu Pillars of Darkness, and VPI magic bricks. Or they're using an ultra tweeter, available from the people who brought you brilliant pebbles and the clever little clock. But the ultra tweeter is apparently 1 GHz plus.

So it's a radio transmitter?

No. Radio waves are electromagnetic rather than longitudinal.

 

[Sherwood]

Children are indeed starving in Africa (and elsewhere), but not because of million dollar stereos.  Someone else's largess is not ours to allot.

 

[ford2]

Quote:

Quote:

I just added up my spending and luckily it's only at $9,995.  So, no doubt here...LOL
 
Just once, I would like to hear one of these systems to dispel all my doubts.

you would say what the hell. I have heard systems up to 250K in Overture in Delaware and really for the 10 pervent difference over a modest system what a wase. The best system I heard was a Cat SL1 with two Cat monoblock triodes driving Genesis !! speakers and a Theta 10K processor with the transpror. All Discovery cable total cost about 90K and it was only 10 percent better than the 30K I had in my house at that time. Big profit in those statement rigs.

Some would consider a 30K system to be a waste.

 

[haloxt]

Do those ten foot tall speakers with 10 drivers each reproduce certain instruments properly? I think having a harmonica radiating from a ten foot column must be a little off .

 

[revolink24]

Quote:

Do those ten foot tall speakers with 10 drivers each reproduce certain instruments properly? I think having a harmonica radiating from a ten foot column must be a little off .

Just ask Magnepan, who produce the most natural sounding (and tallest) speakers I've ever heard.

 

[Frank I]

 
Quote:

Quote:

Quote:

I just added up my spending and luckily it's only at $9,995.  So, no doubt here...LOL
 
Just once, I would like to hear one of these systems to dispel all my doubts.

you would say what the hell. I have heard systems up to 250K in Overture in Delaware and really for the 10 pervent difference over a modest system what a wase. The best system I heard was a Cat SL1 with two Cat monoblock triodes driving Genesis !! speakers and a Theta 10K processor with the transpror. All Discovery cable total cost about 90K and it was only 10 percent better than the 30K I had in my house at that time. Big profit in those statement rigs.

Some would consider a 30K system to be a waste.

served me well for 12 years.  But then again it is all what you can afford and if its worth it to you in the end.

 

[johnwmclean]

Where’s the “buy it now” button?

 

[dallan]

There is an interesting theory that author Daniel Quinn has about the starving millions and how there will always be due to the agricultural development of culture and how humanity reacts to it.  Expanding population to just over the food supply and such.  Sad that the system actually could feed those starving millions but the political structure denies it.
 
As far as the reaction to million dollar systems, it is the type of reaction my wife had when i got the HD800s and she googled them and saw the price.

 
So here is a related question.  If you price the retail cost of all your gear, what percentage is it of your yearly net income.  That relates to earlier comments about the corporate exec with huge incomes.  I am embarrassed to say what percentage it is of mine when i do it.  I am beyond set at this point, over my means.  I have stopped buying and when ready to move to a better environment will sell most of it holding only a minimum decent set up that i can use in the tropics.  

 

[Uncle Erik]

As for percentage of income, I spent about 5% of income for about five years and I did not pay retail for everything. Less than 5%, though, including the family business, but that income goes entirely back into the business for now. Also, I haven't made a major audio purchase in roughly 18 months. I might bite on the JH13, but don't know how much I'd use them, so I'm wondering if I should buy them at all. The e3c is fine for travel.

 

[dallan]

5% in five years is 25% you are better off than me.